Evo in the news

Whales lose teeth, gain baleen - February, 2019
The 380,000-pound blue whale is not only the largest animal on Earth, but the largest to have ever lived on Earth. Their enormous size is only possible because of a specialized filter-feeding structure called baleen. How did the evolutionary innovation of baleen arise? New research sheds light on this fascinating transition.

A Pleistocene Puzzle: Extinction in South America
In this comic, you'll follow the investigation of scientists Maria and Miguel as they solve a paleontological mystery. About 11,000 years ago, more than 80% of the large animal species in South America went extinct. Why did it happen? Maria and Miguel study an area in Chile called Ultima Esperanza. They discover many different lines of evidence that point to a warming climate and the arrival of humans as key causes of the extinctions.

A Place for Life:
A special astronomy exhibit of Understanding Evolution
Biology and paleontology provide an increasingly detailed picture of the evolution of life. Natural selection has resulted in a huge range of organisms living in a multitude of environments, and the geological record shows us how the Earth as a whole has changed over time. To understand the stage on which the evolution of life plays out, however, we must turn to astronomy.

This site was created by the University of California Museum of Paleontology with support provided by the National Science Foundation (grant no. 0096613) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (grant no. 51003439).